Every year my dad takes me, my son and my sister on a Florida family vacation. I just LOVE Florida and want to move there once my son graduates (he’s a Sophomore – yikes, how did that happen?) Anyways, every year I say it’s going to be a NO work vacation. I always say “I’m completely unplugging this year” – no checking email on my phone, no bringing my laptop, no thinking about work. And I mean it every single time I say it.

But guess what happens?

You’re right if you guessed it never happens! I always end up checking email on my phone. There’s always a “extremely important, can’t wait until you’re back” email/something that needs to be taken care of and I do it. In other words, I always end up working. And then I feel frustrated with myself for not valuing my time enough to be stricter with the boundary that while on vacation I will not do any work or check my email.

But thanks to a recent post I just read by Michael Hyatt, I really do mean it this time when I say “I am completely unplugging the next time I go on vacation!” In his post he shares 5 tips that have helped him unplug since starting his sabbatical tradition a couple years ago. One of those tips he mentions is:

I disable all other email accounts on my desktop and mobile devices. I’m using an auto-responder to explain my absence along with Gmail’s filter function to delete all messages as they arrive.

Along with the tips he shared, this really stood out to me:

These steps allow me to get my head out of my work and my heart into my rest. -Michael Hyatt